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EnglishHapkido
Hapkido is a Korean martial art with roots in Japanese Daito Ryu as well as in traditional Korean martial arts.
The object in Hapkido is to defend yourselve by using the force of the attacker against him, without using to much force yourselve. In Hapkido many joint locking/bending techniques are used to control the opponent as well as a wide variety of kicking and striking techniques. Many Hapkido schools teach weapon techniques to their high belts, weapons include the short stick (dan bong), knives, belts or ropes and sword.
Some hapkido schools do forms, others don't. Often Taekwondo instructors intergrate some selfdefence techniques into their Taekwondo curriculum and call it Hapkido. They do however not realise that hapkido kicks differ a lot from Taekwondo kicks.
History of Hapkido
There are quite a few stories about how Hapkido became the art that it is today. (If you are interested in this subject the internet is the place to be). Two names keep coming back every time, the first is Choi Young Sool, who claims to have trained in Japan under Daito Ryu master Takeda, although there are no official records which support this story. Many say the evidence can be found by comparing Hapkido and Daito Ryu techniques.
The second one is Ji Han Jae, he was a student of Choi Young Sool and it is said that he added kicking techniques to Choi's curriculum (thus intergrating Daito Ryu and the traditional Korean Martial Arts).
It is said that Ji Han Jae came up with the name Yapkido for a system which was first reffered to as Yawara or Yu Kwon Sul.
Ji Han Jae also had a role in the Bruce Lee movie Game of Death. Nowadays Ji Han Jae has his own Hapkido style called Sin Moo Hapkido.
The spreading of hapkido
Many Hapkido masters travelled to other parts of the world, where they all established their own organizations, this is probably the reason why there are so many Hapkido federations around the globe. Hapkido schools can be found in nearly every country.
Present
At the present day many Hapkido schools, styles, organizations exist around the world, many of them claiming to have the one and only original Hapkido style. Whether or not your style is the original one, the main point is that you enjoy what you do. Hapkido is a great martial art, no matter what kind of style you practice.
